Computer networks, such as the Internet, are extensively used for storage and retrieval of a vast reservoir of information. Person-to-person communication, in the form of electronic mail (e-mail), has also become widely accepted as a replacement for conventional mail and facsimile. Any individual who has access to the Internet can establish an e-mail account and communicate with other individuals on the Internet.
A new form of e-mail communication, known as instant messaging, is gaining popularity among users of the Internet. As shown in a recent popular movie, “You've Got Mail,” two individuals can engage in an ongoing electronic communication without the need for entering the message recipient's e-mail address for each individual transmission. The advantage of instant messaging is that two or more individuals may engage in an ongoing electronic “chat” by simply typing the message on the keyboard and pressing the “Enter” button on the computer keyboard or by clicking on a “Send” icon on the computer display screen.
Unlike telephonic communication, when participants know that a person is speaking, participants in an instant messaging session do not know that somebody is preparing a message for transmission. Without a cue that the other person is transmitting information, it is difficult to have a smooth conversational flow. One mechanism that addresses this problem is employed by a UNIX “talk” program, which performs a character-by-character transmission of an instant message. That is, each time individual types of a single character on the computer keyboard, that character is transmitted to all other participants in the instant messaging session. Because other participants are essentially watching the person type, there are clear cues that a user is “talking.”
However, this approach has several limitations. First, character-by-character transmission greatly increases the flow of network traffic because each character requires one or more data packets to be sent to each participant in the instant messaging session. In addition, many users do not like to be “watched” as they type, as their typing errors and incomplete thoughts are transmitted before they can be corrected. Finally, message recipients are often distracted by watching the flickering screen in which characters appear one time as a complete message is formed. Therefore, it can be appreciated that there is a significant need for a system and method that will provide the desired notification of user activity in a computer network. The present invention provides this, and other advantages, as will be apparent from the following detailed description and accompanying figures.